Airbus on target to deliver first A330 from Tianjin plant

European aircraft manufacturer Airbus Group SE says its new completion and delivery center in Tianjin will deliver its first A330 in September 2018.

Basic construction work has been finished.

The center, inaugurated in March, is the company's first overseas completion and delivery site for the A330. It has so far recruited more than 110 employees, nearly 40 percent of the total planned workforce.

In mid-October, the company sent its first team for on-the-job training at its A330 final assembly line in Europe.

The Tianjin operation will be responsible for equipping cabins, furnishings, exterior painting and flight testing. The company says that, by 2018, it will deliver two jets every month and may extend the work to an updated version of the A330 as well as the A350 if there is sufficient demand from the market.

Airbus China Chief Operating Officer Francois Mery says the cabin installation work for an A330, compared with a single-aisle aircraft such as the A320 or B737, is four times more in terms of complexity and workload.

"That means we are conducting more complicated manufacturing work with more advanced technologies in China," Mery says.

"We are also looking for suppliers for the cabins and for seats, kitchens, walls, ceilings and other aspects, and we would like to cooperate with Chinese interior suppliers."

By 2020, Airbus aims to do business worth a total of $1 billion with the Chinese aviation industry. It also says it is expanding research and development work with Chinese universities and institutions.

Next to the A330 site is the A320 final assembly line, launched in 2008. Currently the center produces four aircraft a month, and about 300 have been assembled and delivered to date.

On Oct 28, the company's archrival Boeing revealed that Zhoushan in Zhejiang province, a city in East China near Shanghai, is to be the location of its first overseas completion and delivery center for the B737 single-aisle jet.

With it, the company says it aims to help meet strong demand for single-aisle aircraft in the Chinese and international markets.

zhuwenqian@chinadaily.com.cn